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A dream job, a crooked law firm, and Tom Cruise in way over his head
Tom Cruise’s best thrillers prove he doesn’t need explosions to keep you hooked
Tom Cruise has built a career playing men who find themselves in increasingly dangerous situations, whether by choice or by sheer bad luck. From dangling off a skyscraper in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol to running for his life in War of the Worlds to navigating the increasingly bizarre events of Eyes Wide Shut, Cruise is always at his best when the stakes are high and the people around him can’t be trusted. His latest, Digger, is another reminder that there’s rarely a dull moment when Cruise is in the lead.
However, some of his best work came long before he was hanging off airplanes and outrunning explosions, back when he was building a reputation as one of Hollywood’s most compelling leading men. Among the many excellent films in Cruise’s early career, The Firm deserves a place near the top of the list. Directed by Sydney Pollack and based on John Grisham’s bestselling 1991 novel, the legal thriller finds Cruise playing a young lawyer whose dream job quickly turns into a waking nightmare. It’s a different kind of Cruise movie by today's standards, trading globe-trotting spectacle for mounting paranoia, but The Firm is worth checking out now that it's streaming on Paramount Plus.
The story follows Mitch McDeere (Cruise), a brilliant Harvard Law School graduate who accepts an offer from a prestigious Memphis law firm with a suspiciously generous compensation package. The firm provides him with a house, a luxury car, and a level of financial security that seems almost too good to pass up. His wife, Abby (Jeanne Tripplehorn), is understandably thrilled with their new life, and Mitch has every reason to believe he’s finally made it.
There’s just one problem: The firm has a few secrets it would rather keep buried. After learning that several other attorneys have died under mysterious circumstances, Mitch begins to suspect his employers are involved in something far more sinister than questionable legal practices. Soon enough, he finds himself caught between the FBI, which wants his help bringing the firm down, and the powerful people who have made it clear that getting out isn’t an option.
The Firm is most effective in how it slowly reveals to Mitch the mistake he’s made over the first two acts. This isn’t a case of a lawyer stumbling into a dangerous situation and immediately knowing how to get out of it. Mitch is ambitious, a little arrogant, and convinced that his education and intelligence will carry him through almost anything. Cruise plays him with just enough confidence to make his eventual panic believable, and the film gets plenty of mileage out of watching that confidence slowly disappear.
The Cost of Compromise
While Cruise definitely steals most of the limelight, Gene Hackman’s Avery Tolar, the veteran attorney assigned to mentor Mitch, is equally spellbinding. Hackman’s initial friendly demeanor conceals a man who has learned to live with some deeply uncomfortable compromises. A prime example occurs during their business trip to the Cayman Islands, where Avery sits with Mitch at an outdoor resort bar. Beneath the warm tropical sunlight and easygoing banter, Avery drops his polished facade to offer a chillingly frank warning about the inescapable grip of the firm, capturing the tragic disillusionment of a man who traded his soul for luxury long ago.
There’s a reason The Firm became such a major hit in the first place. Pollack understands that the scariest thing about Mitch’s predicament isn’t necessarily the threat of violence, but the fact that the firm has embedded itself into every corner of his life. His house, his marriage, his career, and his financial future are all tied to an organization that has no intention of letting him walk away scot-free. Based on Grisham’s novel, the movie streamlines some of the book’s more complicated legal machinations, but it retains the central appeal of watching an ordinary professional discover that the system he trusted is working against him. The supporting cast helps, too, with Ed Harris, Hal Holbrook, and Wilford Brimley adding to the sense that Mitch is surrounded by people who know considerably more than they’re willing to admit.
At two and a half hours, The Firm is hardly a quick watch, and some of its plotting gets tangled in the details. But Cruise’s performance and Pollack’s steady direction keep the story moving, even when the legal maneuvering threatens to overwhelm the suspense. It captures a particular moment in Cruise’s career, when he was still proving himself as a dramatic actor capable of carrying a sprawling Hollywood thriller without relying on the physical spectacle that would later define his biggest blockbusters.
If you’re looking for a great Tom Cruise movie to get lost in this weekend that isn’t Digger, The Firm is well worth your time.
The Firm is streaming on Paramount Plus. It's also on Peacock and HBO Max through the end of October.